Cynthia Erivo criticises ‘offensive’ fan edit of Wicked poster

Cynthia Erivo has hit out at a fan who digitally altered her image from the Wicked film poster, saying it “degrades” her.

The official poster for the forthcoming movie musical was released last week and is similar in style to the iconic poster advertising the original musical. In it, Erivo as Elphaba stares into the camera while Ariana Grande as Glinda whispers in her ear.

In the new poster, both actors’ faces are visible, whereas in the original one, Elphaba’s eyes are hidden by the brim of her hat and is wearing red lipstick. The fan altered the new poster to make it closer in resemblance to the original.

Erivo was not impressed. “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful Ai of us fighting, equal to people posing the question ‘is your ***** green’,” she wrote in an Instagram story.

“None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”

Cynthia Erivo reacts to edits of the ‘Wicked’ poster and the viral AI fighting animation:

“Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.” pic.twitter.com/R7jGz0Nxnx

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 16, 2024

“The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer… because, without words we communicate with our eyes.

“Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”

Erivo then shared an image of the unaltered film poster, with the caption: “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette.”

Wicked is set to be released in UK and US cinemas on November 22. Given it is coming out on the same day as Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, some fans have suggested the double-header could be a sequel to last summer’s ‘Barbenheimer’, under the name ‘Glicked’. The first trailer was released last month. 

Wicked had initially been slated for a November 27 release, but this was moved forward five days to avoid a family blockbuster clash with Moana 2.

Though originally billed as the first of a two-parter, fans are now theorising the story has been recut into a single film since none of the promotional materials mention the film being a ‘part one’. Meanwhile, those familiar with the story have noticed that scenes from later in the show feature in the trailer, adding to the speculation.

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